Feb. 11 was chosen as the protest day because one year ago Aaron Swartz, a co-creator of reddit who was instrumental in the campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act, committed suicide.

"Aaron showed us that being a technologist in the 21st century means taking action to prevent technology from being turned against the public interest,” Roy Singham, chairman of tech company ThoughtWorks, said. “The time is now for the global tribe of technologists to rise up together and defeat mass surveillance."

So far, more than 5,000 tech companies, activist organizations and media outlets have agreed to join the protest.

The protest will take place across the country, and while it won't be as extreme as the Internet blackouts that occurred in protest of SOPA, protesters are encouraged to “[d]evelop memes, tools, websites and do whatever else you can to participate -- and encourage others to do the same.”

Event organizers also encourage participants to “make calls and drive emails to lawmakers.”